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AME: A Cross-Scale Constellation of CubeSats to Explore Magnetic Reconnection in the Solar–Terrestrial Relation

  • Lei Dai*
  • , Chi Wang
  • , Zhiming Cai
  • , Walter Gonzalez
  • , Michael Hesse
  • , Philippe Escoubet
  • , Tai Phan
  • , Vytenis Vasyliunas
  • , Quanming Lu
  • , Lei Li
  • , Linggao Kong
  • , Malcolm Dunlop
  • , Rumi Nakamura
  • , Jianshen He
  • , Huishan Fu
  • , Meng Zhou
  • , Shiyong Huang
  • , Rongsheng Wang
  • , Yuri Khotyaintsev
  • , Daniel Graham
  • Alessandro Retino, Lev Zelenyi, Elena E. Grigorenko, Andrei Runov, Vassilis Angelopoulos, Larry Kepko, Kyoung Joo Hwang, Yongcun Zhang
*Corresponding author for this work
  • CAS - National Space Science Center
  • CAS - Innovation Academy for Microsatellites
  • Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais
  • University of Bergen
  • Southwest Research Institute
  • ESA/ESTEC
  • University of California at Berkeley
  • Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research
  • University of Science and Technology of China
  • Rutherford Appleton Laboratory
  • Beihang University
  • Austrian Academy of Sciences
  • Peking University
  • Nanchang University
  • Wuhan University
  • Box 537
  • CNRS-Ecole Polytechnique-UPMC
  • Space Research Institute of Russian Academy of Sciences
  • University of California at Los Angeles
  • NASA Goddard Space Flight Center

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A major subset of solar–terrestrial relations, responsible, in particular, for the driver of space weather phenomena, is the interaction between the Earth's magnetosphere and the solar wind. As one of the most important modes of the solar–wind–magnetosphere interaction, magnetic reconnection regulates the energy transport and energy release in the solar–terrestrial relation. In situ measurements in the near-Earth space are crucial for understanding magnetic reconnection. Past and existing spacecraft constellation missions mainly focus on the measurement of reconnection on plasma kinetic-scales. Resolving the macro-scale and cross-scale aspects of magnetic reconnection is necessary for accurate assessment and predictions of its role in the context of space weather. Here, we propose the AME (self-Adaptive Magnetic reconnection Explorer) mission consisting of a cross-scale constellation of 12+ CubeSats and one mother satellite. Each CubeSat is equipped with instruments to measure magnetic fields and thermal plasma particles. With multiple CubeSats, the AME constellation is intended to make simultaneous measurements at multiple scales, capable of exploring cross-scale plasma processes ranging from kinetic scale to macro scale.

Original languageEnglish
Article number89
JournalFrontiers in Physics
Volume8
DOIs
StatePublished - 15 Apr 2020

Keywords

  • CubeSats
  • constellation
  • cross-scale
  • magnetic reconnection
  • mother satellite
  • solar-terrestrial relation
  • space weather

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